Sri Lanka loses electricity nationwide as grid shuts down

Sri Lanka experienced a nationwide electricity blackout on Saturday after the national power grid tripped. IOL reported the outage lasted six hours, from approximately noon until dusk, while the New Straits Times, Malay Mail, and Channel News Asia stated the country was without power for more than two hours with no clear timeline for restoration. The Daily Times noted that engineers were working to address a fault affecting the grid.

Officials suspect the breakdown was caused by an imbalance where solar power generation exceeded consumption, possibly due to muted demand during a weekend holiday. Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka stated the cause is under investigation and requested that rooftop solar system owners disconnect their systems to assist restoration efforts. IOL reported that supplies were eventually restored in stages across the island.

The country's installed solar capacity is just over 3,000 megawatts, while daytime demand typically ranges between 2,000 and 2,500 megawatts. According to IOL, the New Straits Times, and the Malay Mail, tax concessions have encouraged consumers to sell surplus electricity back to the grid, creating management difficulties for the utility provider. This follows a similar grid shutdown in February 2025.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Times, IOL, New Straits Times, Malay Mail, Channel News Asia — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.